Jasprit Bumrah is still not ruled out of T20 World Cup yet: Sourav Ganguly

Team India’s preparation for the T20 World Cup has been dented by Jasprit Bumrah’s untimely injury. The speedster has been ruled out of the ongoing T20I series against South Africa with a stress fracture in the back and as per several reports, he isn’t likely to travel to Australia for the mega event. However, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is still optimistic about Bumrah’s availability as he stated the pacer still hasn’t been entirely ruled out of the competition. 

It must be noted that Bumrah missed the Asia Cup earlier this month due to his back injury. While he warmed the benches in the opening game of the recently-concluded T20I series against Australia, the 28-year-old featured in the other two games, providing Indian fans a massive relief. 

The World Cup is still quite some time away: Sourav Ganguly 

However, on the eve of the series opener against South Africa, the pacer again got injured and subsequently got ruled out of the series. While Bumrah’s availability for World Cup seems unlikely, Ganguly stated the tournament has still some time.  

"Jasprit Bumrah is still not ruled out of T20 World Cup yet. The World Cup is still quite some time away. Lets not jump the gun," said Ganguly to Rev Sports.

The Indian pace spearhead is currently at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru where he’s undergoing further tests to examine the status of his injury.

Meanwhile, it must be noted that ace all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja will also miss the mega tournament and hence, Bumrah’s absence would dent Rohit Sharma’s team even further. In case the pacer failed to make it to Australia, Deepak Chahar is the front-runner to replace him as he’s already on the reserve players list. Mohammed Shami is another contender for the spot but the pacer hasn’t played a T20I since the last year's World Cup and was recently down with COVID-19. 

 Hence, it remains to be seen how the team management and selectors tackle this issue.